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Dragon's Dogma Online - Overview / comparison
kaiser3282
Member UncommonPosts: 2,759
So I decided to check out the JP version of Dragon's Dogma Online and have spent several hours in it between yesterday and today. Unfortunately without being able to read Japanese it is a bit difficult to grasp some details of the game, but it was easy enough to begin playing, figure out the character creation / customization, the available classes, and begin playing through the content.
I just wanted to give a little bit of an overview of the game that I have experienced so far and see how it stacks up to the single player Dragon's Dogma, especially for those who played the original.
So to start with I would first like to refer to The Elder Scrolls series vs The Elder Scrolls Online. As we all know, there wasn't a whole lot carried over from the single player games to the online version aside from the lore and the settings. Basic combat and mechanics were quite a bit different between the SP games and the MMO. The reason I bring up TESO mainly for the comparison of a SP game being converted to MMO, and losing quite a bit of itself along the way. People wanted a TES game with multiplayer added on, but instead received more of a standard MMO with TES added on.
So did the same thing happen with Dragon's Dogma? Is it just standard MMO fare with the Dragon's Dogma IP tacked on? Fortunately no.
The game is essentially Dragon's Dogma with multiplayer added on. The look and feel of the game is very similar as far as art style and aesthetics, even the animations. Many of the same skills were carried over, combat feels extremely similar, and the mechanics themselves such as clinging on to large monsters and climbing them to attack weak points, being able to break off body parts such as the tusks of cyclops and the tails of saurians, as well as precise hits to weak spots (such as headshots on humanoids) resulting in criticals. The class / vocation system is also pretty much the same, with most of the same vocations in place, though a few are missing from the original.
There are various other details which were kept in the online version as well such as the use of Pawns (basically sidekicks NPCs that you can create, customize, and gear & build the way you want to either offset or enhance your own character), the same types of quest notice boards in towns, similar use of statistics and their impact on gameplay such as stamina used for sprinting as well as skills and weight of equipment impacting your speed & stamina out of combat, in combat, and while clinging to large monsters.
Overall, it feels very much like you are playing a direct sequel to DD with the ability to play with others online as well as some other nice additions such as world quests which change daily.
It does fall short in a few aspects though. One of the big ones for many will be the fact that it isn't as open world as DD and actually IMO doesn't quite qualify as an actual MMO. It is more like Guild Wars 1, where there are city hubs to meet up with others, form your party, and then go out into your own instance of the world which resets. The areas are quite large and consist of various quests, caves, dungeons, etc within each of the world zones. It is open enough that it still feels quite like DD and the world is approximately the same size, but as I mentioned before it kind of disqualifies it as being a true MMO but rather a hub based multiplayer game.
OK so enough with the comparison's to the original. Let's get into a bit more detail of some of the features / mechanics and overall quality.
For starters, the game is cross-platform with PS3, PS4, and PC players all playing together on the same servers and is very comfortable to to play with either KB&M or with a gamepad / controller. Although the game looks quite nice graphically, it is not a massive resource hog and can actually be played on mostly high settings even with a low-medium range rig. No noticeable FPS drops / stuttering even when there is a lot going on. Very smooth running.
So far I have not run into any noticeable bugs / glitches. Even without being able to understand a word of what they're saying I have managed to complete every quest I have come across as well as do some exploring on the side. Overall polish and smoothness of gameplay so far has been 10/10.
The game starts you off with your pick of 4 basic vocations, or classes which consist of a Hunter (archer), Fighter (melee dps, sword and shield), Priest (magic user, primary healer), and Shield Sage (melee tank type, sword and bigger shield). You can switch between the 4 classes, each with their own levels. As you level up and complete certain tasks with each class you will earn something called JP (I assume for Job Points) which are then used to purchase new skills (both active combat skills and passives) as well as spend more points to increase the levels of those skills.
Eventually you can also unlock more advanced classes such as Seeker (agile dual wielding melee, closest thing to an Assassin type), Sorcerer (offensive magic), Elemental Archer (combination archer and support / healer class) , and Warrior (offensive 2-H melee fighter). I have not quite reached the point of unlocking these yet, so I can't be sure, but I believe they do require reaching certain levels of specific basic classes (for example you likely need Hunter and Priest of certain levels to become an Elemental Archer).
The game also has an "Area" system where, via an NPC called the Area Master, you can unlock various information and rewards specific to that area / set of zones, by completing certain tasks which earn you Area Points. Earn enough points and you gain an Area Level and unlock the next tier of rewards.
Anyway, that is all for now. I plan on continuing to play through for awhile and experience more of the game while struggling with the Japanese in the hopes that someone creates an English patch soon. Will provide updates as I encounter new things or run into any issues, perhaps some videos as well. So far the game has been quite enjoyable and fun to play, and is very polished, especially considering it is F2P. Great addition to the Dragon Dogma Series.
EDIT: Adding link to the videos I created of some of my gameplay and going over some details of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnfT2wv0k2Q&list=PL0cNV1UA-Q9eaHGWoFrTkMgTKSM9dctEK
I just wanted to give a little bit of an overview of the game that I have experienced so far and see how it stacks up to the single player Dragon's Dogma, especially for those who played the original.
Comparison to the original DD:
So to start with I would first like to refer to The Elder Scrolls series vs The Elder Scrolls Online. As we all know, there wasn't a whole lot carried over from the single player games to the online version aside from the lore and the settings. Basic combat and mechanics were quite a bit different between the SP games and the MMO. The reason I bring up TESO mainly for the comparison of a SP game being converted to MMO, and losing quite a bit of itself along the way. People wanted a TES game with multiplayer added on, but instead received more of a standard MMO with TES added on.
So did the same thing happen with Dragon's Dogma? Is it just standard MMO fare with the Dragon's Dogma IP tacked on? Fortunately no.
The game is essentially Dragon's Dogma with multiplayer added on. The look and feel of the game is very similar as far as art style and aesthetics, even the animations. Many of the same skills were carried over, combat feels extremely similar, and the mechanics themselves such as clinging on to large monsters and climbing them to attack weak points, being able to break off body parts such as the tusks of cyclops and the tails of saurians, as well as precise hits to weak spots (such as headshots on humanoids) resulting in criticals. The class / vocation system is also pretty much the same, with most of the same vocations in place, though a few are missing from the original.
There are various other details which were kept in the online version as well such as the use of Pawns (basically sidekicks NPCs that you can create, customize, and gear & build the way you want to either offset or enhance your own character), the same types of quest notice boards in towns, similar use of statistics and their impact on gameplay such as stamina used for sprinting as well as skills and weight of equipment impacting your speed & stamina out of combat, in combat, and while clinging to large monsters.
Overall, it feels very much like you are playing a direct sequel to DD with the ability to play with others online as well as some other nice additions such as world quests which change daily.
It does fall short in a few aspects though. One of the big ones for many will be the fact that it isn't as open world as DD and actually IMO doesn't quite qualify as an actual MMO. It is more like Guild Wars 1, where there are city hubs to meet up with others, form your party, and then go out into your own instance of the world which resets. The areas are quite large and consist of various quests, caves, dungeons, etc within each of the world zones. It is open enough that it still feels quite like DD and the world is approximately the same size, but as I mentioned before it kind of disqualifies it as being a true MMO but rather a hub based multiplayer game.
Summary / overview:
OK so enough with the comparison's to the original. Let's get into a bit more detail of some of the features / mechanics and overall quality.
For starters, the game is cross-platform with PS3, PS4, and PC players all playing together on the same servers and is very comfortable to to play with either KB&M or with a gamepad / controller. Although the game looks quite nice graphically, it is not a massive resource hog and can actually be played on mostly high settings even with a low-medium range rig. No noticeable FPS drops / stuttering even when there is a lot going on. Very smooth running.
So far I have not run into any noticeable bugs / glitches. Even without being able to understand a word of what they're saying I have managed to complete every quest I have come across as well as do some exploring on the side. Overall polish and smoothness of gameplay so far has been 10/10.
The game starts you off with your pick of 4 basic vocations, or classes which consist of a Hunter (archer), Fighter (melee dps, sword and shield), Priest (magic user, primary healer), and Shield Sage (melee tank type, sword and bigger shield). You can switch between the 4 classes, each with their own levels. As you level up and complete certain tasks with each class you will earn something called JP (I assume for Job Points) which are then used to purchase new skills (both active combat skills and passives) as well as spend more points to increase the levels of those skills.
Eventually you can also unlock more advanced classes such as Seeker (agile dual wielding melee, closest thing to an Assassin type), Sorcerer (offensive magic), Elemental Archer (combination archer and support / healer class) , and Warrior (offensive 2-H melee fighter). I have not quite reached the point of unlocking these yet, so I can't be sure, but I believe they do require reaching certain levels of specific basic classes (for example you likely need Hunter and Priest of certain levels to become an Elemental Archer).
The game also has an "Area" system where, via an NPC called the Area Master, you can unlock various information and rewards specific to that area / set of zones, by completing certain tasks which earn you Area Points. Earn enough points and you gain an Area Level and unlock the next tier of rewards.
Anyway, that is all for now. I plan on continuing to play through for awhile and experience more of the game while struggling with the Japanese in the hopes that someone creates an English patch soon. Will provide updates as I encounter new things or run into any issues, perhaps some videos as well. So far the game has been quite enjoyable and fun to play, and is very polished, especially considering it is F2P. Great addition to the Dragon Dogma Series.
EDIT: Adding link to the videos I created of some of my gameplay and going over some details of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnfT2wv0k2Q&list=PL0cNV1UA-Q9eaHGWoFrTkMgTKSM9dctEK
Post edited by kaiser3282 on
Comments
I'm curious if the game will have PVP, though Asian games with PVP seem to be unbalanced pretty heavily from what I experienced.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
Currently no PvP and AFAIK no plans for it either. Perhaps an arena or something down the road if there is enough demand for it, but it will likely be tacked on and not very well done because of the PvE focus.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
#IStandWithVic
Here are the videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnfT2wv0k2Q&list=PL0cNV1UA-Q9eaHGWoFrTkMgTKSM9dctEK
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